Items tagged with headphones

Just as you won't find any copies of Windows 8.1 or Surface Pro 3 tablets being sold in any Apple Store locations -- Apple and Microsoft are rivals, after all -- the Cupertino outfit is no longer carrying Bose products, either. Like Microsoft, Bose is now a competitor to Apple following the company's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. Apple used to sell a selection of Bose-branded speakers and headphones, but all such inventory has now been pulled off of store shelves. The move isn't all that surprising, not just because the two are competitors now, but also because tensions are high...Read more...

Apple just got sacked by Bose after the audio company blitzed the National Football League (NFL) to become the league's official headphone and headset brand. Bose and the NFL extended their sponsorship agreement back in March, and as part of the deal, players and coaches must remove headphones from any other manufacturer during televised interviews. That includes Beats by Dre, a popular brand among professional athletes such as Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, both of which have endorsed the Beats by Dre brand in the company's "Hear...Read more...

Teaming up with rappers in the audio headset market is fast becoming the newest fad in the tech industry. To wit, Apple recently joined forces with Dr. Dre by purchasing Beats Music for $3 billion, and now Intel is collaborating with rapper 50 Cent and his SMS Audio company to jointly release a set of earphones with Intel's health monitoring technology baked in. Intel's engineering and design teams have been working with SMS Audio for the past seven months to build the SMS Audio BioSport In-Ear Headphones. The Santa Clara chip maker designed the layout and circuitry, took charge of the system integration,...Read more...

Hello Razer, have we met before? You may ask yourself the same question after spying the peripheral maker's new Kraken Forged Edition headphones. Razer's been known to put out some solid gaming accessories, no doubt about that, but the Kraken Forged Edition aims higher than Razer has perhaps ever aimed. Not only is this a premium (and premium priced) headset, Razer's touting it as the "best headphones" you can buy, point blank. "These are the best headphones on the market for both music and gaming, period," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. "We’ve made some...Read more...

The headphones that made headphones cool have a new look and some important new features that will keep the beat going even longer. The Beats Studio series isn’t available just yet, but it’s already getting attention for the sleek new design and rechargeable batteries that are expected to give listeners 20 hours of audio bliss. Beats Electronics was founded in 2008 by Luke Wood, Jimmy Lovine, and Dr. Dre and made its reputation with the stylish Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, which received good marks for delivering quality sound. The new Beats Studio series has dual-mode Adaptive...Read more...

The headphone world is a lot like the tablet world: there's lots of watered-down, low-cost, low-quality options. And frankly, cutting through the noise is tough for companies. Apple and a small handful of others have done so in the tablet realm, but what about headphones? There's one name that's soaring above all others these days, and that's Beats Electronics. The famed audio brand has just introduced the new Beats Studio. These cans have been redesigned and tweaked in myriad ways. Each pair of Studio headphones is precisely tuned with new custom digital software called the Beats Acoustic Engine...Read more...

Back in May, the US Patent and Trademark Office approved an interesting Apple patent, one that will allow (if Apple does in fact implement it, which is likely) the iPhone to automatically adjust its volume based on its proximity to your face. There are many reasons why that could prove to be a useful feature, and it's now become clear that Apple had no intention of stopping there with this basic premise. Today, we can see that Apple had actually applied for a similar patent mere months before the aforementioned one was approved; this time, it involves earbuds. According to the patent, volume would...Read more...

It's not easy getting noticed in a market as competitive as headphones, but OrigAudio has managed to draw attention to itself by marching to a beet of a different drummer. That's not a typo folks, nor is the Beets by OrigAudio line of headphones a joke, even though they're sure to elicit a few giggles by your Beats by Dr. Dre wearing friends. Unlike your buddies and all those sports stars you see wearing Beats by Dr. Dre headgear during pre-game ceremonies, you won't spend anywhere near upwards of $200 for a pair of Beets, which are priced at just $25. If that's not enough to make you feel good...Read more...

Corsair today announced the release of a free software driver update that infuses its Vengeance 2000 Gaming Headset with Dolby Headphone 2.0 and Dolby Pro Logic IIx support, improving both surround sound quality and game capability. In other words, a stellar headset just got better, a statement we're qualified to make. We recently tested the Vengeance 2000 as part of a five-way gaming headphones roundup and came away impressed by its build quality and sound performance, especially in relation to its price tag (it streets for around $100). It has a padded headband, sizable earcups, and an aggressive...Read more...

What separates a premium headset from a blue light special? It's a combination of things, from well designed drivers to comfy ear cups that kiss the sides of your head with a gentle yet firm caress (we're being melodramatic...a little). And then there's the overall feature-set and premium extras like a noise-canceling microphone and 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can discern from a headset's spec sheet, and with so many to choose from, you'd have to invest an obscene amount of time and money auditioning each one. We don't want you to have to do that, so we went...Read more...

If our eyes are the windows to the soul, then what does that make our ears? Doorways to our internal sound stage, that's what. But listen up, it doesn't matter how gnarly the guitar riffs your favorite musician is playing or how intense the in-game effects are, if your headphones aren't up to the task, then you might as well go back to the days of MIDI files Ad Lib sound cards. Second-rate headsets rob you of delightful high notes and brain rattling bass, of the subtle sound of footsteps when an opponent tries to sneak up behind you or the blast of a grenade you just hurled behind enemy lines....Read more...

When it comes to Bluetooth headsets, there really are only a few names left in the industry making new ones that people are actually interested in. Perhaps it's because the whole "talking to yourself" fad never took off, but whatever the case, it's certainly a tough business nut to crack. But that's not stopping a new name from surfacing just in time to showcase a new one at CES 2013. AfterShockz will be debuting a world's first at the show -- it's the first open-ear wireless Bluetooth headphone, and yes, they're of the bone-conducting variety. The company asserts that they're building this due...Read more...

Well, don't these just look cozy? Perhaps more outlandish than cozy, but we'd sure wrap 'em around our ears. Razer has introduced its newest gaming headset, the BlackShark. It's a stereo gaming headset that's said to be inspired by tactical aviator headsets, and the design similarities are fairly obvious. It comes as a Razer-branded version of the popular Battlefield 3 Razer BlackShark, a headset that the company developed from the ground up for the Battlefield franchise and released earlier this year at E3. The company claims that this thing was developed to make the wearer feel like your average...Read more...

Gaming headsets are a dime a dozen these days, but names like Turtle Beach and Tritton continue to produce goods that are a cut above the rest. Now, Mad Catz is announcing the Tritton Pro+ True 5.1 Surround Sound Headset, which is billed as the update to the Tritton AX Pro. It supports both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, with shipments expected to start next month. The Pro+ offers up 5.1 surround sound through eight separate drives. Moreover, there's a redesigned inline Remote and Selectable Voice Monitoring (SVM), allowing users to choose if they hear their own voice in the headset. Price...Read more...